Little information exists concerning the spatial relationship between invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) cases and Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis) carriage. The aim of this study was to examine whether there is a relationship between IMD and asymptomatic oropharyngeal carriage of meningococci by spatial analysis to identify the distribution and patterns of cases and carriage in South Australia (SA). Carriage data geocoded to participants’ residential addresses and meningococcal case notifications using Postal Area (POA) centroids were used to analyse spatial distribution by disease- and non-disease-associated genogroups, as well as overall from 2017 to 2020. The majority of IMD cases were genogroup B with the overall highest incidence of cases reported in infants, young children, and adolescents. We found no clear spatial association between N. meningitidis carriage and IMD cases. However, analyses using carriage and case genogroups showed differences in the spatial distribution between metropolitan and regional areas. Regional areas had a higher rate of IMD cases and carriage prevalence. While no clear relationship between cases and carriage was evident in the spatial analysis, the higher rates of both carriage and disease in regional areas highlight the need to maintain high vaccine coverage outside of the well-resourced metropolitan area.

关于侵袭性脑膜炎球菌病 (IMD) 病例和脑膜炎奈瑟菌 (N. meningitidis)携带之间的空间关系的信息很少。本研究的目的是通过空间分析确定南澳大利亚 (SA) 病例和携带的分布和模式，探讨 IMD 与脑膜炎球菌无症状口咽携带之间是否存在关系。使用邮政区 (POA) 质心对参与者的居住地址进行地理编码的运输数据和脑膜炎球菌病例通知用于分析疾病和非疾病相关基因组以及 2017 年至 2020 年总体的空间分布。大多数 IMD 病例B 基因组在婴儿、幼儿和青少年中报告的病例总体发病率最高。我们发现脑膜炎奈瑟氏菌携带与 IMD 病例之间没有明显的空间关联。然而，使用携带和病例基因组的分析显示大都市和偏远地区之间的空间分布存在差异。偏远地区的 IMD 病例率和携带率较高。虽然在空间分析中病例和携带之间没有明显的关系，但偏远地区的携带率和疾病率较高，突显了在资源丰富的大都市区之外保持高疫苗覆盖率的必要性。